Jason Victor Serinus

Quite the well-conceived display, don't you think? I have to say the same about the sound, one of whose high points, on Gabriel Rios's "Swing Low," was a wonderfully large and captivating soundstage.

Grimm's new MU2 music streamer/DAC/analog preamplifier ($18,000), which will start shipping in October or November, is already back-ordered.

How Raidho manages to produce such an extreme, seeming full range sound from a floorstander as diminutive as the X2t (€14,000/pair) I do not know. But perhaps its planar-magnetic tweeter, which is almost the same as in the much larger TD6, has something to do with it. The speaker, which replaces the X2, also has contains 5.25" bass drivers with an extremely stiff tantalum-coated membrane, Nordost internal cabling, Mundorf capacitors, special decoupling feet that include metal balls, and 2.5-way construction. Crossover components have been improved, and are hard-wired point-to-point, and the loudspeaker has been completely retuned.

There were several reasons why I was extremely eager to hear this system. First and foremost, given the high price of Wadax digital gear, I wanted to get a sense of what the Wadax Atlantis Reference DAC ($166,420), Wadax Atlantis Reference Server ($68,800), Wadax Atlantis Reference Transport $115,000), and Wadax Atlantis Reference PSU ($52,700) might sound like in the context of the MOC's challenging acoustics. Second, while I don't have good sense of the ultimate potential of Magico M6 loudspeakers ($185,000/pair), which I haven't heard as many times as I hope I will, I certainly know the sound of the D'Agostino Momentum HD preamp ($42,500) and D'Agostino Momentum M400 MxV monoblocks ($79,950/pair), both of which grace my reference system. So, with a big thumbs up to Wadax for having the smarts to go head-to-head with dCS by using the same electronics they're often paired with, and for also now offering an optional higher-priced all-black finish which greatly alters their gear's appearance, I had to listen.

SteinMusic's apparent paradox, a striking black-and-white equipment array that's on track to win my Looker Award of High End 2023 but that delivered maximally colorful sound, attracted throngs to the company's room. On Sir Simon Rattle's recording of Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite, performed by the City of Birmingham Orchestra, and Musica Nuda's live recording of "I Will Survive," Holger Stein's system delivered an arresting three-dimensional soundstage and marvelous range of colors.

You may have now read as much German as I dare put into print, but you'll likely read far more about Voxativ's revamp of its first loudspeaker, the formerly discontinued, single 8" driver Ampeggio loudspeaker (€25,900/pair), in the coming months.

"People kept asking for it," Voxativ owner Inès Adler told me. "We've learned a lot in the 20 years since it was first issued, and have been able to optimize and specially tune the design. Yet we've managed to keep it at the same price it was two decades ago."

Alexander Melnikov: Fantasie: 7 Composers, 7 Keyboards; Nielsen: Symphonies 2 (The Four Temperaments) & 6 (Sinfonia semplice); Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major (cadenzas by Jörg Widmann); Fragment from Violin Concerto in C Major; R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra & Debussy: Jeux.

Mick Survance of Quintessence Audio in Morton Grove, IL knows his brands well. Wilson Audio, Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems, Clearaudio, DS Audio, dCS, Transparent, Bassocontinuo, Sonus faber, Boulder, Critical Mass Systems, Hana, and Kubala-Sosna: these are among the major, time-honored brands that fill the homes of many audiophiles with means.

Each of these rooms had several elements in common: premium equipment, meticulous set-up, and heavy black draping that, while necessary to reduce multiple issues in narrower air-walled spaces (which were nonetheless larger than my music room), also reduced three-dimensionality and air. It was thus a wonder that individually as well as collectively, Quintessence's showcases produced some of the best sound I encountered at the show.